When confronted with a difficult surgical procedure, doctors have
worked blind, not knowing what to expect until an incision was made.
Recently, researchers have been making inroads with the use of 3D
printing to replicate organs for training, practice, pre-planning
surgery and patient education.Dr. Dinender Singla, professor of medicine at the Burnett School of Biomedical Science, College of Medicine at the University of Central Florida,
is at the forefront of this new technology. He is working on the
development of customized 3D printed heart models to aid surgeons in
complex pediatric procedures. Dr. Singla’s mission is to make advanced
3D heart models available to doctors.He says,

The goal is to give doctors a tool they can use that
accurately reflects what they will be seeing when they go into surgery.
It can make for better outcomes.

The 3D printed surgical models are becoming more complex, detailed
and customized for patients and specific conditions. Different colors
are being used to differentiate heart defects. The printing materials
are being adjusted, using soft materials for soft tissues and hard
materials for the external parts of organs.

Color-coded 3D Printed Heart

The anatomically correct hearts are customized using computer
tomography and magnetic resonance imaging. The 3D printed hearts are
already being used in the United States in surgical procedures and are
becoming accepted around the world.In China, a 3D printed heart was used for the first time to pre-plan
and successfully complete open heart surgery on a nine-month old baby
suffering from Total Pulmonary Venous Anomalous Drainage, a congenital
heart defect where one of the four pulmonary arteries is defectively
arranged.To plan for the surgery, the Chinese team used a 3D printed heart
replica to address the baby’s malpositioned pulmonary veins and atrial
septal defect. The surgery was a success and the baby is expected to
recover with no unwanted side effects.

A 3D Printed Heart

Doctor Zhang Xuegin, the child’s surgeon says,

With the model, we were able to know precisely where and
how we should cut, and how big the incision should be. And with such a
thorough plan, we spent only half the time we had expected to complete
the surgery.

The use of 3D printing is being used for other organs as well and is even being used in veterinary science.The goal is to eventually use printers to produce actual organs that
can be transplanted into patients; just replace the rubber and plastic
printer “ink” with human cells.3D printing is revolutionary for medicine. The future is now.